THURSDAY MORNING, 10:30 a.m. AND SNOW is still falling here in Faribault. But the sun is breaking through and I am hopeful the snow will soon end. The unofficial yardstick reading on our patio is 14 inches from this three-day weather event.
Randy is blowing the driveway open as I write. Just as he nearly finished clearing the end, the city plow arrived, blading a windrow of snow back across the driveway. Timing. Now he’s working on removing that ridge. This is not unexpected; we Minnesotans assume this will always happen.
Neighbors have emerged, too, blowing snow from sidewalks and drives. Across the street, neighbor boys are outside playing. I watched as one scooped snow onto his shovel, waited and then promptly dumped the load onto his brother’s head. Nearby, Dad continued working the snowblower.
This is a snow day for Minnesota kids. E-learning and distance learning or maybe no learning at all.
A mom and her two little ones are out walking the dog.
Businesses and public places—the arts center, the library, the mall, the shoe store—are either closed or opening late. People seem to be heeding the warnings to stay home and off roadways. Even Randy is staying home from work today.
Traffic, mostly non-existent earlier, is picking up along our main arterial street. Mostly snowplows and pick-up trucks pulling trailers loaded with snow removal equipment.
In the extreme southwestern corner of Minnesota, my native prairie, a portion of Interstate 90 remains closed along with many state highways. Wind whips this light snow, creating whiteout conditions, snowdrifts feet high and impassable roads. The National Guard is standing by to launch roadside rescues if needed.
As snowstorms go, I’ve experienced much worse, especially as a Redwood County farm kid. I respect winter in Minnesota, understand the dangers when a major storm descends. And today, although this storm was not quite the historic storm predicted, I’m good with that. With some 14 inches of total snowfall, that’s enough for me, and Randy.
TELL ME: If you live in Minnesota, how much snow did you get? If you live elsewhere, are you experiencing any bad weather? I’d like to hear your stories.
© Copyright 2023 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
We have been warm and mild this winter – almost no snow at all!
14 inches is enough! Clearing all that sounds like hefty work!
My son, who lives in Lafayette (attending grad school at Purdue) has said the same about winter there. He’s been riding his bike to campus and the temp yesterday was 53 degrees with rain. I felt a tad envious. Yes, 14 inches is enough. It took Randy two hours to blow and shovel all that snow. I didn’t help this time, although I usually do.
Thank goodness that’s over. I wonder if that will be the last of your snow. Hope so!
Oh, this definitely will NOT be the last of our snow. We still have two months of winter remaining. I’ve even seen snow in May.
Love the winter pics
All taken from inside the cozy comfort of our home. Given snow was still falling when I shot most of these, I didn’t want to take my camera outdoors.
Glad you are seeing all that goes on during and after a big snow. It’s amazing how people are so resilient and most everyone pitches in. The children enjoy the snow and extra time off of school and it all gives a sense of community, even in challenging circumstances. Life slowly returns to normal over time, bit by bit, and everyone hopes that everyone else has basic needs met. There’s a lot of heart in that.
You’re right about that sense of community and resiliency that comes with a storm. I hope conditions are improving in Michigan.
it’s really bad right now, but we’re working our way through
Oh, Beth, I’m sorry. Hang in there. The sun will come out. Tomorrow. Tomorrow.
I’m really grateful for what I have compared to what a lot of people are dealing with
You always have such a positive attitude. I love that about you. 🙂
In 1993, we’d just relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee for work when (per the NWS) the “storm of the century” struck the southeast and eastern U.S. – 2 to 3 inches per hour for a total of 56 inches where we were. Unlike Minnesota, Tennessee had little experience with lots of snow, much less this much. Our power was out for 3 days and it was days before the roads were cleared. We volunteered our chained 4×4 truck to drive people to services they needed. We’ve encountered other weather stuff since but this still ranks as the high (or low) point of our storm experiences. Your pictures of Randy remind me that I have to go shovel snow off the patio…
That is a whole lot of snow. I can’t quite fathom 56 inches in a single storm. However, the power out part if familiar to me as we lost power on the farm once for a week. Have fun shoveling your patio.
Audrey,
I’m glad you and Randy appear to have weathered the storm. We rarely get 14 inches of snow in Fredericksburg, Virginia where I live. Today is, believe it or not, 82f. Tomorrow it will go down to a high of about 59f. As I’ve mentioned in previous notes to you, my Father’s family lives in Redwood County so I appreciate your references to it.
That will be quite a temperature change. Are you expecting storms due to that? I hope not.
Just some showers tomorrow.
Good to hear, just showers. One day of really cold temps here and then warmer Saturday and even warmer on Sunday…then mixed precip on Monday.
As “events” go, wasn’t bad here as the earlier one, mostly due to fluffy snow vs. wet/heavy. We also didn’t get 14, but guessing 10+. I shoveled some through the night, as is my practice. It accomplished closing everything important, but church went on, including a choir of 30 (vs. twice that). Many did cancel or online only, I see Trinity held service, even with an interim pastor. Now if our plows come yet today, we’ll be good. Been a long few days, for sure! I am glad for the extra parking opened up in the cities, plowing out the neighborhoods took forever the last time. (Glad Randy has found more employment, his skills are needed.) Now if this transmits, my “down” has been internet service – a disaster!
Good to hear all is well in your metro neighborhood. I thought the plan to open parking lots to get vehicles off the streets was brilliant. And, yes, church services went on, although we were not in attendance. I’m thankful for technology which allows for attendance. I’m sorry about your disastrous internet service.
As weird as it sounds, I see everyone’s photos back home of this big snow event and I feel like I totally missed out! Especially when here in Connecticut we’ve had a mostly snowless winter and 40s and 50s a lot. My Minnesota roots need to be buried in snow on occasion! Save some for me, I’ll be home next month!
I know you miss “home,” Brenda. I hope viewing my snow photos helps, or perhaps it just makes you miss winter in Minnesota even more. If you have time to pop in when you’re back, I’d LOVE to see you.
14 is no joke for removal! Had to laugh at the picture of the boys, remembering my boys doing the same after a snowfall. Good memories are made from such storms.😊❄️
You’re right. Memories come from snowstorms, positive and negative. Like you, I love seeing kids outside having fun.
Glad your snow is over for this storm. It is pretty until you have to move it. Glad you have a snowblower —- it would be nearly impossible on a corner lot without one!
I am thankful for our snowblower also. We have sidewalk on only one side of our corner lot, so that helps. Still, being on a corner, the end of the sidewalk gets plowed full of snow.